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Lessons in Partnerships along the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park serves as a great introduction to the people who made the trail a reality. For insight into the intersection of the trail with the growth of the environmental movement and the need to secure permanent protection for the trail during the rise of the property rights movement, read Sarah Mittlefehldt’s book Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics (2013). In it, she offers some valuable insights on forming conservation partnerships in a challenging world.

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Bridging the Nature/Culture Divide with Ecological Restoration

How we resolve the dissonance in our thinking between the goals of conserving ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. One area where this question is being dealt with in an engaging way is within the field of ecological restoration. Off the west coast of Canada, on a small island in the Gulf Islands archipelago, The Galiano Conservancy Association offers an exciting model of how to transform traditional nature conservation.

Read More »

Guide to the Parks – Past, Present and Future

Last summer, I taught a college course on the History of U.S. National Parks. At the time, I lamented the relative lack of high-quality, scholarly research on recent National Park history to share with my students. Fortunately for me, when I teach the class again this spring, I will now have the book I was looking for – the recently published A Thinking Person’s Guide to America’s National Parks.

Read More »

Highway Planning on a Landscape Scale: The Next Generation

What happens when a highway project, long planned to improve the functionality of the overall transportation system, runs up against new designations that look at the value of resources on a landscape scale? How can infrastructure development manage this changing landscape? After all it does not look like this kind of thinking is going away. Read the back story and some recommendations for the future.

Read More »

Introducing the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN)

The need and the recognition of a growing movement inspired the founding of the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN), which is working to connect organizations and people across a broad spectrum of action relating to private and civic land conservation. The ILCN envisions a world in which the public, private, civic (NGO), and academic sectors, together with indigenous communities around the globe, work collaboratively to protect and steward land that is essential for wildlife habitat, clean and abundant water, treasured human historical and cultural amenities, and sustainable food, fiber, and energy production.

Read More »

Lessons in Partnerships along the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park serves as a great introduction to the people who made the trail a reality. For insight into the intersection of the trail with the growth of the environmental movement and the need to secure permanent protection for the trail during the rise of the property rights movement, read Sarah Mittlefehldt’s book Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics (2013). In it, she offers some valuable insights on forming conservation partnerships in a challenging world.

Read More »

Bridging the Nature/Culture Divide with Ecological Restoration

How we resolve the dissonance in our thinking between the goals of conserving ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. One area where this question is being dealt with in an engaging way is within the field of ecological restoration. Off the west coast of Canada, on a small island in the Gulf Islands archipelago, The Galiano Conservancy Association offers an exciting model of how to transform traditional nature conservation.

Read More »

Guide to the Parks – Past, Present and Future

Last summer, I taught a college course on the History of U.S. National Parks. At the time, I lamented the relative lack of high-quality, scholarly research on recent National Park history to share with my students. Fortunately for me, when I teach the class again this spring, I will now have the book I was looking for – the recently published A Thinking Person’s Guide to America’s National Parks.

Read More »

Highway Planning on a Landscape Scale: The Next Generation

What happens when a highway project, long planned to improve the functionality of the overall transportation system, runs up against new designations that look at the value of resources on a landscape scale? How can infrastructure development manage this changing landscape? After all it does not look like this kind of thinking is going away. Read the back story and some recommendations for the future.

Read More »

Introducing the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN)

The need and the recognition of a growing movement inspired the founding of the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN), which is working to connect organizations and people across a broad spectrum of action relating to private and civic land conservation. The ILCN envisions a world in which the public, private, civic (NGO), and academic sectors, together with indigenous communities around the globe, work collaboratively to protect and steward land that is essential for wildlife habitat, clean and abundant water, treasured human historical and cultural amenities, and sustainable food, fiber, and energy production.

Read More »